


Lock-Down

by magic_kiwi



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - High School, Confessions, Dungeons & Dragons References, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Monsters & Mana (Voltron), Morning Cuddles, Morning Kisses, Mutual Pining, dumbasses in love, supportive boyfriend, will update tags with each prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:16:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23402101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magic_kiwi/pseuds/magic_kiwi
Summary: A collection of drabbles from@vhms0ul's Lock-Down week on Instagram in March 2020.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Kudos: 51





	1. Supply Run Gone Wrong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 1 - Closet

Pidge is a gremlin. A horrible, evil, nasty little gremlin. Did she have good intentions for locking him and Lance in the supply closet for their astronomy club? Absolutely. Was it going to end with him and Lance trapped in the tension-thick room for the rest of the day? Most likely.

They got in an argument last week over something. Keith can’t remember why they started bickering or who even started it, but heated words and sharp remarks were exchanged, cutting deep. He hadn’t said a word to Lance since, practically going back to how it used to be before he met his now close-knit group of friends: lips sealed and glares thrown left and right at anyone who so much as looked at him.

It’d gotten to the point where he’d been avoiding said close friends just so he wouldn’t have to interact with Lance. He didn’t want to see Lance because he’d either a). end up punching him in the face for what he said, or b). let all the emotions he’s bottled up over the week burst and that’d be an ugly sight and it’s not something he wants to do. Don’t need that to be used as blackmail against him.

But of course, him, Lance, Pidge, Hunk, and Allura are all in the high school’s astronomy club and he can’t just not go to the meet since they were going to use a calcium filter to look at the Sun that afternoon. So, albeit begrudgingly, he sat in his usual spot next to Lance and Pidge in Mr. Smythe’s classroom after the school day ends on Friday.

Arms crossed, he’d been flicking through songs and pointedly keeping his gaze off the Cuban chattering away next to him with Allura. Knowing Lance, he’d probably been flirting away with her, trying to win her heart over. It made something sour pinch the back of his throat, heart squeezing in his chest. He cranked the volume up louder, drowning out the stupid thoughts and stupid jealousy and stupid crush and stupid stupid _stupid_ everything.

A small hand waved in front of his face, dragging him out of his daze and yanking his earbuds out. The action stung his ears, going from loud, heavy bass to quiet murmuring within the classroom. He could hear his music, just a dull buzzing from his earbuds trapped in his hands.

Pidge raised an eyebrow at him, resting the hand in front of his face on the desk and leaning on it. “You good?”

“Yeah,” he nodded, swallowing the lump in his throat. If anyone will beat his ass for avoiding everyone for the past week, it’s Pidge; don’t blame him for being nervous. “What’s up?”

“Teach needs help getting stuff for today from the supply closet. Can you help?” she asked.

“Sure.” Keith pushes out his chair, standing and stretching. He saw Pidge look around him, gesturing at-

“Lance, you too; c’mon.”

 _Fuck_.

“Why me? You’ve already got two sets of hands?” Lance whined. Keith refused to turn and look at him, knuckles white as he clenched them in his pockets.

“Because I said so. Up up, Loverboy. Don’t make me physically push you to the closet,” Pidge threatened.

“Alright, alright, fine. Don’t you dare drag me.” He hears Lance pause next to him, but he keeps his gaze focused on his boots and refusing to look up, hair shielding his peripheral from seeing anything else.

“Come on!” Pidge yelled, and Keith could hear the exhausted tone in her voice. He waits for Lance to walk past him before shoving his phone in his pocket and trailing behind them.

One flight of stairs and a few turns later, Pidge put the key into the doorknob, unlocking the astronomy club’s supply closet. She held the door open, gesturing them to walk in. He followed Lance in, looking around the room. There’s telescopes and different samples of things from other planets that Mr. Smythe is licensed to have and other equipment they use from time to time.

“So, what did Smythe need us to grab?” Lance asks, pulling out a bin and peering into it.

And then the door shut.

The lock clicked back into place, wrapping the closet in total darkness. He spun around in a panic, eyes wide and fear lodged in his throat.

“Pidge?!” he called out, reaching blindly into the darkness trying to find the door. “What the fuck are you doing?”

“Helping. You guys are staying in there until you sort out whatever happened last week,” she responded, footsteps receding.

Which led to his current situation of being trapped in the supply closet with the person he’s been avoiding for the past week.

Where he’s still stuck. It’s been an hour according to his phone, the glow burning his eyes. His back is against the door, legs curled up to his chest and arms folded on top. He can’t make Lance out in the dark; his eyes have adjusted to the dark abyss in front of him, but there aren’t any windows to let light in.

They still haven’t said a word to each other. It’s dead silent and awkward, Keith’s anxiety skyrocketing from the occasional shift he can hear from Lance moving around. The Cuban has been tapping his foot against the ground, and knowing him, it’s from his ADHD.

Don’t get him wrong; he really wants to talk with Lance, but after their argument, how does he just talk with his friend normally after it? He’s mad at Keith for what he said, right? If he just had better control of his feelings, he wouldn’t have lashed out in jealousy.

Keith buries his face in his arms, sighing as he squeezes his eyes shut. Lance is just as stubborn as him, so the radio silence from both of them might never end, but…

“I’m sorry,” Keith mutters, curling tighter on himself, the words barely a whisper but ringing loud in the silence. Lance’s tapping stops and Keith knows he has his full attention. “I shouldn’t have said anything; it was a stupid thing to argue about. Now you probably hate me, since we haven’t said anything to each other since then. I’m too much of a hot-head, huh?”

He chuckles weakly at the stupid attempt at a joke, but he can feel the tears burning the backs of his eyes, breaths shaking. “You don’t have to say anything right now, I just… miss you, I guess. You mean a lot to me and I don’t wanna lose you, but it’s fine if you don’t want to be friends anymore; I wouldn’t want to be friends with me either after all the things I said.”

The silence afterward is deafening but expected. He told Lance he didn’t have to respond, and he didn’t. At least the issue is resolved and now they can get out of this stupid closet.

Shaking hands reach for his phone when he hears Lance fumbling wherever he is. After a few tries of swiping down and missing the stupid button, Keith turns on the flashlight. The sudden light is blinding, making him squint against it for a few seconds before his eyes adjust.

Lance has a hand up, shielding his eyes from the light. “It was better when the light was off, Mullet.”

“It’s not a mullet,” he weakly protests back.

“Can you turn that off?” Lance sighs, lowering his hand. Keith nods, shutting off his phone and setting it aside. He hears Lance walking closer and then sit down right next to him, their sides pressed together. It has Keith flinching, trying to curl more in on himself. Lance doesn’t let him though, tapping on one of his arms.

“Keith, look at me.” He huffs, raising his head out of his arm-cocoon. Just barely he make out Lance’s face, blue eyes staring right at him. “I said some pretty harsh things too; it wasn’t just you. I thought _you_ hated me. You stopped hanging out with everyone and it didn’t feel right. And you looked so upset.”

“I was upset. For a little, at least. But then I wasn’t any more and I just wanted to talk to you again, but I didn’t know how.” Lance shake his head and then there’s fingers touching his hand. Keith almost jerks away from the touches, but he keeps his hand in place, letting Lance play with his fingers as they talk.

“You could’ve just walked up, Keith. You were the one who distanced yourself, not that I’m blaming you for avoiding me.”

“Anxiety, dumbass.” _Plus my stupid feelings would’ve gotten in the way_ , he thinks to himself.

“Feelings..?” Lance asks, cocking his head to the side in confusion.

“I didn’t mean to say that out loud, fuck,” Keith groans, pulling his hands away and hiding his face. “Whatever, it’s out now. Why else did you think I brought up Allura when we were arguing? I’m jealous, okay? I thought if I ignored these stupid feelings they’d go away ‘cos I know I have no chance with you since you’re straight, but nope, they’re still here and they’ve decided to screw me ov-”

His hands are pried away from his face, and he barely gets any time to protest before Lance is dragging him closer by the wrists. There’s a second of hesitation, noses barely touching and breaths mingling together before Keith’s yanked even closer, practically sitting in Lance’s lap as their lips meet.

He freezes, shock stunning him before he melts into the touch, hands cupping Lance’s cheeks as they dive deeper. His whole body is tingling like he was stuck by a live wire, pulling Lance impossibly closer. There’s soft little hums of pleasure coming from him but he can’t put in the effort to care, heart pounding in his chest.

Lance pulls away, resting their foreheads together when Keith tries to chase him. “For the record, I was spending so much time with Allura because I was trying to figure out how to ask you out and some good date ideas.”

“Oh,” he breathes out, shame coloring his cheeks.

“It’s okay; you didn’t know,” Lance murmurs, pressing a kiss to his forehead. “And I forgive you.”

“But-”

“No buts, I’m not mad. But I don’t want to be friends anymore. Go out with me and be my boyfriend?” Keith nods, pulling Lance into a hug and burying his face in his neck. Lance squeezes him back just as tight, resting his head against Keith’s.

“Can you text Pidge to let us out of here? My butt’s starting to hurt from the floor,” Lance asks, trying to pull away from the hug, but Keith just holds on tighter, refusing to let go.

“Later. Let me enjoy this,” he responds.

“Keith.”

“Nope, not moving.”

“Fine,” the Cuban huffs out, melting back into the hug. And if they accidently fall asleep tangled together waiting for Pidge to come get them from the closet, no one needs to know except the little gremlin who locked them in there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My Instagram: [@_magic_kiwi_](https://www.instagram.com/_magic_kiwi_/)  
> 


	2. Déjà Vu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 2 - Elevator

As fun as it is riding around in Red all speedy and dodging Galra, Lance finds it much more reassuring and less dangerous hiding in one of the cruiser’s vent, sniping possible problems for his teammates. The metal is cool against his body, even with the Paladin suit’s built-in temperature regulator. He’s got a finger on the trigger of his bayard-turned-sniper-rifle and an eye focused through the sight, darting left and right, watching his friend’s backs.

A sentry peeks out from behind a corner, hidden from Hunk’s line of sight and too slow of a reaction to catch it with its gun aimed right at him. One quick adjustment and one shot later, there’s a laser bullet hole through the thing’s head, smoking as it crumples to the floor. He doesn’t wait for a thanks, just moves back on to scanning for threats and firing.

He downs one charging Pidge’s left, a few slipping past Allura, and probably close to ten that suddenly surround his boyfriend because the loveable idiot isn’t paying attention. Keith salutes to him when all the sentries around him a destroyed and he salutes back, grinning even though he knows Keith can’t see it from the current distance between them.

All the blood and death and killing used to scare him shitless. But that’s the sad thing about being in an intergalactic war: you get used to it eventually.

Once the team is sure they’ve cleared out all the soldiers and sentries, Lance hops down from his secret spot and regroups with everyone. He leans an arm against Keith’s shoulder as they all crowd around Pidge and the map displayed on her wrist comm.

Everyone turns to Keith, waiting on what directions their Black Paladin will give them. His boyfriend’s eyebrows are pinch together, deep in thought as his eyes flick over the map and it makes Lance want to smooth them out with his thumb. But they’re on a mission right now so he’ll save it for later.

“Alright,” Keith starts, clonking his helmet against Lance’s to pull him off his random thought train. His boyfriend starts pointing at different locations as he talks, galaxy-purple eyes focused. “Hopefully this plan doesn’t suck, but it’s probably best if we split into two group. Pidge and Hunk will go to the control room and knock out their shields, engines, and security systems. According to the map it’s on this floor. Lance, Allura, and I will head up to the prison levels. Lance and I will start freeing the captives and Allura will get them to escape pods and send them towards the Castle where Coran can tend to any of the sick and injured. We’ll take separate elevators up so it’ll be harder to catch us if we run into trouble.”

“That’s not a bad plan at all, Keith,” Allura says as Hunk flashes him a thumbs-up. “Very thoughtful for something on the spot.”

“Thanks, I guess. I tried,” Keith mutters, trying and failing to hide behind his bangs because of his helmet. If he could, Lance would kiss his pink cheeks right now. Instead he settles for reaching down to give his boyfriend’s hand a reassuring squeeze and Keith squeezes back.

“Alright, lets go.” They all nod and split off, pulling up their own maps as they twist through the hallways. Him and Keith follow the indicated path, crouching behind corners to scout the corridors for any possible threats.

There’s a few patrols walking their shifts, but it’s nothing the two of them can’t handle. Keith rushes them, slicing them to bits while Lance shoots at the ones further off. They find a rhythm in the battle and their tempos sync.

Soon enough they make it to the elevator. Before they get close, Lance pushes the Black Paladin against the wall, arm flat against his chest. Keith throws him a quizzical look, but Lance is focused in on the corner of the elevator, raising his rifle, breathing in and out, and pulling the trigger.

The camera sparks before the purple glow inside dims. He looks back at his boyfriend with a triumphant smirk, grabbing his hand and pulling him inside. “Forgot about the cameras, babe. Pidge and Hunk should be in the control room, but better safe than sorry, right?” he chuckles as he pushes the hopefully correct button for the prison levels.

The doors slide shut soundlessly, his stomach sinking to his toes slowly as the elevator starts to rise. He doesn’t expect it when Keith’s arms wrap around his waist, his boyfriend trying to wedge his face in his favorite hiding spot on Lance’s neck, but their helmets clunk together awkwardly. But he winds his arms around Keith’s shoulders, taking his chin in one hand and resting their foreheads together.

“Leading is stressful,” Keith mutters under his breath with no need of Lance’s usual poking around to get his boyfriend to speak what’s on his mind. “There’s so much to worry about and I’m just… not the type of person to do be in this position.”

“Hey, you’re doing great,” Lance reassures him, grabbing his face with both hands. “But you don’t need to balance everything on your shoulders. I’m your right-hand man for a reason, _cariño_.”

Keith opens his mouth to respond, but the purple lights inside the elevator start flickering before going out completely. The neon blue light-strips embedded in their suits are the only things lighting up the small area. The elevator jostles up and down for a few seconds and then stops, the red emergency lights flickering on.

He can’t help but chuckle at the situation, weaving their fingers together and swinging them side to side.

“Déjà vu, much?” Lance snorts, grinning at Keith as he rolls his eyes and laughs.

“Again? Thought we were done being stuck in elevators together after the whole Pool Incident.”

“Apparently not, we’ve gotta do it all again,” he snorts. “We gonna argue and bicker this time around?”

“We’ll see if you cooperate, Sharpshooter.” Keith winks at him, taking out his bayard and summoning his sword. His boyfriend wedges the blade between the ceiling panel, pulling it out. It clatters to the floor as Keith sheaths his bayard, grabbing the ledge and pulling himself up and out. He reaches a hand down for Lance to grab and helping him get onto the elevator’s ceiling.

“Soooooo,” Lance says, looking at the map he’s pulled up. “We’re only a floor away. We could try and do the same thing we did during the Pool Incident.”

“Oh my god, Lance,” Keith groans, shoving him playfully. “We were practically naked during that. We have our armor and _jetpacks_. We can just boost our way up.”

Lance laughs, face palming. “Oh yeah. Forgot about that.”

Keith snorts again, activating his pack and pushing off the elevator. Lance follows right behind him, hugging close to the wall. When their packs start going out, they hop on the ledges and re-boost until they see the exit doors.

Feet dangling on the ledge they’re standing on, miraculously, they manage to pry the door open and they tumble through, fading giggles echoing in their chests as they fall to the floor. Keith’s on his hands and knees grinning over at him lying starfish.

He taps out a few buttons on his wrist comm and Pidge’s voice filter through. “Are you guys okay? Did something happen?”

“Did you and Hunk cut the systems already?” he asks, still chuckling.

“We did, why?”

“Think you knocked out the elevators too. Lance and I got stuck in another one like how y’all locked us in the elevator together on the Castle when we were trying to get to the pool and we had to climb out Emperor’s New Groove style.” In the middle of a rescue missions, they’re all laughing way too hard.

“It was unintentional, we promise!” Hunk wheezes. “You guys are already dating and it’s cute enough already!”

“Everyone!” Allura’s voice cuts through their laughter, but she’s stifling her own giggles. “As much as I enjoy the jokes, we have a mission we need to complete.”

“Roger that, Princess,” Lance salutes, picking himself up and offering a hand to Keith. “Let’s get a move on, Samurai.”

“Lead the way, Loverboy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My Instagram: [@_magic_kiwi_](https://www.instagram.com/_magic_kiwi_/)  
> 


	3. Stress Relief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 3 - Keith's Room

There’s sunlight shining through a window right next to him, burning red against his eyelids and causing Lance to stir awake. It’s strange though because he knows his bed in his dorm room is on the opposite wall from the window so this doesn’t happen.

He turns his head away from the glare, jabbing an earbud that must’ve slipped out of his ear back into place, soft acoustics filtering through the silence. This song specifically Lance knows is on his _Keith <3 _playlist. And now with his whole groggy sleep state, starting to wear off, he feels the weight on his chest and how it’s slightly harder to breathe.

Said weight shifts on top of him, a pair of arms wrapping around him a little tighter and a nose presses against his neck. Lance slowly cracks his eyes open and is greeted with the view of black hair and Keith sprawled on top of him., his boyfriend snoring softly.

Last night, him and Keith were supposed to be studying, but they got distracted by watching the northern lights that magically appeared and just some good ol’ snuggles and smooches while listening to music since they had midterms coming up and stress is always fun. Knowing them, they passed out before actually getting a chance to study.

Hunk is probably freaking out since he didn’t come back and Lance is probably gonna get in trouble for sleeping in a different room because their college is strict like that, but if he waits until mid-day he’s got a better chance of avoiding issues. His phone is probably filled to the brim with panic texts from his best friend. He’d grab it from the nightstand next to Keith’s bed, but that’d risk waking up his boyfriend and he knows how little sleep Keith gets sometimes.

He’s content to lie here with his _cariño_ until he wakes up on his own. There’s probably a class he’s missing right now and he’s gonna hate having to make up the work, but that’s a problem for Future Lance to deal with. Present Lance is warm and comfy here under the blankets with an armful of boyfriend. So what if he can barely breathe and leg is cramping from being pinned under Keith? There’s nothing else to worry about other than not waking up the sleeping beauty in his arms.

The song changes to one of Keith’s favorites. Lance shifts slightly and slowly, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and cards his free hand through Keith’s hair, messy and tangled from sleep.

It’s strangely domestic and he finds himself loving every bit of it.

A few songs later and some angry buzzing from Lance’s phone, Keith shifts in his arms, eyes fluttering open and squeezing shut again at the sunlight, burying his face into Lance’s chest.

“Morning, sleepy head,” Lance mutters, straining a little to lean over and press a kiss to Keith’s head.

He grunts in response, looking up at Lance and squinting. “Why’re you still here?”

“What, you don’t enjoy my company?” Lance fake-pouts in response, huffing and pulling his arms away from his boyfriend and crossing them.

“You know I love spending time with you,” Keith retorts, scooching up and kissing him. “Just wondering why you aren’t in your own room because of campus rules.”

“Well, _someone_ decided it would be a good idea to snuggle under the covers at midnight last night and fall asleep on top of me so I can’t move.”

“You were the one who wanted to cuddle and listen to music.”

“You were the one who wanted to watch the lights last night and not study.”

“You’re the one who’s too beautiful to ignore.”

“You’re the one who’s got the prettiest eyes.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Can I go back to bed?”

“Keith no,” Lance laughs, pressing another kiss to his soft lips. “I need to get up, I can’t feel my legs thanks to you.”

“But I like it here,” Keith whines, hugging him tighter and hiding his face in Lance’s neck again. “If you had a class to go to, why didn’t you leave?”

“Because,” he responds, going back to running his hands through Keith’s mullet. “I know how little sleep you get to begin with and you sleep a hell of a lot better if you’re with me. And you’re a light sleeper and I didn’t want to wake you us ‘cos you look cute when you sleep.”

“Laaaaaaance!” He watches as Keith’s ears turn red. Keith complains about how pale his is and how red he gets, but Lance thinks it’s adorable.

“What? Just stating facts, babe.”

“Shut up.”

“Make me.”

And Keith does. And they might spend the better part of an hour just laying in bed and making out before the buzzing from his phone bugs him enough that he tells Keith he needs to go before Hunk calls the police.

One last long smooch from his amazing boyfriend before Lance grabs the door handle and unlocks it.

Only the door won’t budge.

“Keith, the door’s stuck.”

“Did you unlock it?” Keith hooks his chin over his shoulder.

“I’m not _that_ stupid, babe.”

“You can be-”

“Oi!”

“Guess the door’s jammed or something. Oh well, looks like you’re stuck with me for however long until I get the RA.”

“Oh no, how horrible. Whatever shall I do?” he teases, pretending to swoon and leaning his weight on his super strong boyfriend.

“For one, text Hunk so he stops freaking out. After that, we can just sit around and watch YouTube or something.”

“I guess you’re right. But we need to finish studying and then you get cuddles.”

“Deal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My Instagram: [@_magic_kiwi_](https://www.instagram.com/_magic_kiwi_/)  
> 


	4. Amidst The Wreckage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 4 - Lion

They had ended up on a recon mission, scouting out a planet that had a distress signal for a few thousand years. Allura wanted them to see if there were still civilians or if the Galra sadly wiped them out.

Allura sent him and Lance in the Red Lion to go observe the planet. An odd choice considering they’re always at each other’s throats. But Keith figures it’s team bonding and he’s just gonna ignore his crush on the Blue Paladin.

Turns out the planet is heavily infested with Galra, cruisers hovering around the planet and it’s too late to go back into the wormhole. They start firing on Red, and Keith drops him in to evasive maneuvers with Lance clinging to the back of his seat.

He can’t dodge them forever; he’s just one guy flying a mechanical lion with no back up. A cruiser manages to land a hit on Red’s side, hitting something critical and sending his Lion spiraling down to the planet’s surface with a crash.

The impact knocks him and Lance out; how much time passes is uncertain. When Keith wakes up, there’s wires sparking and parts of Red’s interior destroyed. He’s pinned under something heavy, pain flaring in his legs and side.

He calls out to Lance, and he hears the Blue Paladin respond right above him, a hand reaching over and ruffling his hair at an odd angle. They talk for a little and realize that they’re both stuck under collapsed and broken pieces of Red.

Red’s protective barrier is still functional, a red glow surrounding them. His helmet got knocked off at some point during the collision, so there’s no way he can contact the team. Though they’ve probably been gone too long for a recon mission and the rest of the team is looking for them. Hopefully.

Lance has been saying things, but the words are muffled and his vision’s been getting fuzzy. He’s hyper-aware and not aware of what’s going on at the same time. There’s a hand in his own, fingers wound together before the words slip past his lips and he passes out again.

_“I love you too.”_

When he wakes up again, it’s to the freezing chill of the healing pods. Shivering, he steps out and into warm arms he melts in to. Him and Lance stand there for a little, clutching tightly to each other.

The near-death experience was terrifying, but they found each other from it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My Instagram: [@_magic_kiwi_](https://www.instagram.com/_magic_kiwi_/)  
> 


	5. Distracted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 5 - Space Mall

Lance has Keith pinned against the stall door, lips locked together in a rushed dance. He’s got his hands tangled in Keith’s hair and his boyfriend has his grip wound tight on his shirt, both of them trying to pull the other closer even though they’re already pressed together.

They were supposed to be focused on picking up supplies for the next few weeks and then heading back to the Castle so they could head off to the next planet to free from the Galra. But today was one of those days where Lance was getting distracted left and right by what was deemed “nonessential items” and being paired with his boyfriend didn’t help with his attention span.

The temptations of cuddles and kisses were too much, and he dragged Keith off with little complaint to the bathroom just to get away from the responsibility of grocery duty. Unsanitary as it was, they plopped down on the tiled floor and watched random videos Lance had recorded back on Earth cuddled together.

When they ran out of videos, there were the random games they had at their disposal to play, like Twenty Questions and Truth or Dare. There was a staring contest and an intense game of Sticks, both of which he totally absolutely won and not his smug “I’m good at everything” boyfriend.

Then they started kissing. And then they couldn’t stop kissing. It was like going without air; impossible and a burning need to keep breathing.

It’s impossible to tell how long they were enamored with each other, but when the lights suddenly shut off and the hum of electricity is gone, Lance breaks away with heavy breaths against Keith’s lips.

“Power outage?” he mumbles, looking up pat the now dark lights. The sudden change has his eyes trying to adjust rapidly and failing, everything just a dark blur in front of him.

“We should probably go check it out,” Keith says, pressing one last kiss to Lance’s lips before grabbing his hand and hearing the stall door unlock.

“Fiiiiiiiiiiiine,” he groans, being dragged along helplessly behind his half-Galra boyfriend who can probably see in the dark perfectly fine.

The hallway outside the restroom is pitch black, as well as all the shops and overhead lights. What knocked out the power that caused the entire mall to black out?

Keith is leading him through the dark maze, occasionally jerking him left and right to avoid assumed obstacles. Eventually, he remembers he’s got a flashlight on his phone so he busts that out and turns it on.

With the new light source, he can see all the shops with metal grates pulled down blocking entrances. Chairs are stacked on tables and there’s a cleaning bot somewhere whirring away.

The entrance confirms what Lance’s thinking. Both doors are locked, sealed shut and a red light from a card slider blinking tauntingly at them.

Keith groans, pressing his forehead against the doors, breath fogging up the glass. Lance walks over to him and draws a little frowny face in the condensation, ruffling his boyfriend’s hair.

“We’ll be fine. I’m sure everyone knows we’re missing and are coming back to get us,” he reassures Keith, lacing their fingers together and dragging him down the wall to sit.

“Can you call them just in case?” Keith asks, leaning his head on Lance’s shoulder.

He nods in response, turning off the flashlight and dialing Hunk on video call. There’s a few rings and just the stagnant image of Hunk’s face before his best buddy picks up, Pidge working on something in the background.

“Hey buddy!” Hunk says cheerily, smile bright.

“Hey.”

“Woah, it’s dark in your room. Did the lights go out or something? Do you need me to come and fix them?”

“No..?” Keith flashes him a worried look. “Where are you guys?”

“We’re in Pidge’s lab, why?”

“No, like… where are you guys in space?”

“We should be wormholing to the next system that was on Allura’s list of distress beacons. Is something wrong?”

“Yeah, there’s just an itsy-bitsy problem. Keith and I aren’t on the Castle.”

“You guys are _what_?” Pidge shrieks, nearly toppling over in her chair before rushing over to the screen. “We thought you were on board and doing whatever couple things couples do and that’s why we didn’t see you! You’re still at the mall?”

“Mhmm,” Keith hums in response. “The doors are locked too; think it’s after hours right now.”

“Oh my god, you guys are fucking idiots,” Pidge groans, rubbing her eyes. “I’m gonna go tell the Princess and we’ll come and get you. Don’t think we’ll be able to get you until the mall reopens because y’know, we’re Paladins and we have to abide by the law, so no breaking into places unless it’s Galra facilities.”

Both of them laugh at Pidge’s attempts to impersonate Allura before she leaves to get said Altean. They chatter with Hunk a little before they hang up since the stupid flashlight drained his battery.

“So we got time to kill until everyone comes to get us,” Lance says, stretching his arms above his head and wrapping one around Keith’s shoulders, pulling him close. “Whatdya wanna do?”

The only response he gets is soft snores, Keith passed out against him, bangs hiding his face as he snuggles closer.

“That’s one way, I guess,” he laughs, resting his head against Keith’s and shutting his eyes tight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My Instagram: [@_magic_kiwi_](https://www.instagram.com/_magic_kiwi_/)  
> 


	6. Dex Check

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 6 - Monsters & Mana

“This is a fine mess you’ve gotten us into,” Pidge mumbles across from him, glare sharp as she messes with her dwarf miniature and eyes focused on his boyfriend.

“It’s not _my_ fault that I didn’t roll high enough on my Con save and freakin’ fell asleep!” Lance screeches, arms crossed and leaning against Keith’s side. “Blame the dice, not me!”

“Technically, it is your fault for putting your lowest stat roll in your constitution, bud,” Hunk pipes in.

“Why are you all ganging up on me?! Assholes,” Lance huffs, hiding his face in Keith’s hair. He wraps an arm around Lance’s shoulders, looking over the giant erasable map that Coran is drawing on.

The party consisting of Lance, Keith, Pidge, Hunk, Shiro, and Allura had taken shelter under a rock in the desert after an exhausting battle, trying to regain health and also plan out what they needed to do next for the quest they were on. With a fire lit and rations eaten, Allura’s character took the first hour watch since elves apparently didn’t need to sleep; they just fell into a deep sort of meditation-like state.

After her, Hunk and Shiro’s characters took the next two hours since humans couldn’t see in the dark. He went after since his character choice could see well in the dark, and he woke Lance’s character up for his watch.

The next time he awoke, as told by Coran, they were inside someplace rocky, perhaps a cave or inside a mountain. Everything was fuzzy within his vision; Allura was the only one to roll high enough on her check to know that they all were drugged and most likely kidnapped. All of them were separated in different cells, arms tied behind their backs and stripped of armor and weapons.

When the guards had passed them, in their drugged state only him and Shiro had succeeded on their history checks and recognized them as Yuan-Ti; humanoid snake-like people that lived away from society.

Lucky for them they all speak Celestial, albeit like children and their words are slurred in their current state, but they can communicate enough that they can relay information back and forth without the Yuan-Ti understanding.

“So, what will you all do?” Coran asks, fingers laced together for his chin to rest on as he leans over the DM screen, an evil grin set on his face.

“The bindings are rope, yes?” Allura asks, swiping through her phone and picking up her d-twenty.

Coran nods. “Right they are. However, because you are inebriated currently, you’ll have to roll your strength save at a disadvantage.”

“Better than just sitting here doing nothing,” Keith mutters, moving his arm from Lance’s shoulders to lace their fingers together instead, making a grab for his dice and flicking over to his stats. Everyone else does the same, dice hitting the table as they all roll.

“Nine.” “Dirty 1.” “Five.” “Five.” “Five.” “Nine.”

“Oooo, so close for Thunderstorm and Meklavar. None of you can seem to break the binds; the ropes stay stubbornly in place,” Coran replies.

“Trying again,” Keith huffs in response.

“Stubborn as always, _cariño_ ,” Lance chuckles.

Keith swipes Lance’s blue and white d-twenty to make the process faster and rolls his dice again. The dice clack across the table before coming to a stop in front of his mini.

“Double elevens, so it’d just be a thirteen.”

“Thunderstorm tries again to break his restraints, and with enough friction, the ropes snap,” Coran says.

“Sweet, so I can walk around in my cell. Fantastic,” he sighs.

“We need to figure out a way to get out of the cells,” Shiro states, looking at the map carefully. “What’s inside the cells? Anything we could use?”

“Each cell has different things inside. You all can roll an investigation check if you choose, again at a disadvantage.”

It’s a storm of dice as they all hit the table followed by a few groans of disappointment.

“Twelve.” “Six.” “Nine.” “Eleven.”

“Nat one,” Lance whines, clinging tighter onto Keith. “This is where I die. They’re gonna turn me into a lizard.”

“Thirteen, and no they won’t, Lance. They’ll have to go through me first,” he counters, giving him a quick smooch.

“Keep the gross sappy stuff away of the game please,” Pidge groans, fake-gagging in their direction. He flips her the bird and Shiro sends him his disapproving big brother glare as everyone else laughs. Coran’s talking about what they found, but he doesn’t really need to pay attention to what’s going on since it’s not in his light of sight. He’ll just sit here stroking over his boyfriend’s knuckles with his thumb.

“Thunder, because you’re up and walking around now, you manage to scare a rat that’s been gnawing on hair in the corner.”

“Oooo, Keith! You could use your acid spell and burn through the bars and get us out!” Hunk exclaims.

“I can?” he asks, scrolling over to his spell list and clicks on _Acid Stream_. “It’s a material spell, so I need something so I can cast i- oh I’m supposed to use the rat. Good thinking, Hunk.”

“Smart thinking! Knew you’d pick this up quickly!” Coran cheers for him. “But you’re going to have to catch it first. Roll a dexterity save, still at disadvantage. The rest of you roll constitution saves to see if you’re still under the influence.”

Keith flicks over to his stats and find his dex as the others roll their con saves. “I’ve got a plus three; this’ll be easy-peasy.”

“Famous last words, Keith,” Allura teases, cheering as she passes the con save.

“I’ll be fine. We’ll be out of here in no time.” He rolls his dice.

And he gawks at the numbers. A freaking two and four.

“Five,” he groans, banging his head on the table. Lance pats his back, rubbing soothing circles into his jacket.

“You try and make a dive for the rat, but it skitters aside before you can wrap your hands around it.”

“Told you,” Allura chides. “Famous last words.”

“Shush, Princess. I’m trying again.” He doesn’t even have to look at the second dice this time as he groans again. “Nat one.”

Coran grins evilly at him. “You rush the rat again clumsily. It easily dodges your attempt to grab it, but you forget how small your cell is and run into the cell wall face first. You take- ” a pause as a dice is rolled. “Three points of damage.”

“I swear to fucking god,” Keith swears as Pidge and Allura start giggling. “I’m gonna catch this thing and y’all can’t stop me.”

“Calm down, babe. You’re going Southern again,” Lance says, fighting back his own laughs.

So Keith tries for the next two minutes trying to roll a successful dex check and failing every single one. The others are laughing to the point of tears at Coran’s marvelous stories of how he’s chasing a rat around his cell like a crazy person. By the end of it when he finally succeeds with a seventeen, he’s laughing along with them, resting his forehead on Lance’s shoulder as he giggles away.

He has Thunderstorm Darkness burn through the cell door, rushing over to each of his friends and rescuing them from their cells before Lance grabs his chin and kisses him deeply. Safe to say everyone groans at the PDA and Pidge’s gagging can be heard in the distance, but he ignores it in favor of pulling Lance’s hood over his head and blocking the sight from everyone.

His boyfriend pulls away first, grinning like an idiot at him and kissing him again.

“My hero. My beautiful, magical, ‘can’t catch a rat if his life depended on it’ hero.”

“Shut up and keep kissing me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My Instagram: [@_magic_kiwi_](https://www.instagram.com/_magic_kiwi_/)  
> 


	7. Quarantined

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 7 - Free Choice; COVID-19 Modern!AU

It’s been three weeks since schools closed across his state and one week since an official quarantine had been announced. Originally it had been great, getting out of school for two weeks and just not doing anything school-related, but then all the COVID cases started spiking everywhere and things started getting terrifying. People were urged to stay at home and only go out if absolutely necessary. Then the actual quarantine was issued. Not how he thought the year was gonna go.

He’s been doing online classes for school and it’s strange, like almost being homeschooled but not really. Everything’s shut down, no places to go so Lance has been stuck inside. He can’t go out and see friends, but at least he can work around it with texting and video calls whenever they can. Most of the events that all seniors had like prom and senior week have been canceled.

To keep himself busy, he’s been staying on top of his schoolwork for once and helping his family around the house. He’ll help his mama with anything she needs and he’s been playing with his niece and nephew since Luis and Lisa got stuck at the family house because of the quarantine and they can’t fly back home. Veronica’s home from her job too, so it’s been interesting having over half of his family in the same house again.

There’s video games to play and books to read and random things to knit, but it’s gotten boring and he wants to go outside and see people again. He misses Hunk’s cooking and Pidge’s teasing and Shiro’s dad jokes and Allura’s mom friend tendencies.

He misses Keith the most though. His lovely boyfriend who is the most introverted person Lance has ever met and he knows that Keith is doing great being alone with no social interaction. They FaceTime pretty much on a daily basis though, and he can tell how much Keith misses him too. What he’d give for snuggles right now.

The TV has been droning on about something related to the virus as he’s been folding laundry, everything now in sorted piles and ready to be taken back to his room. He puts it all back in the basket and gets up, hauling the basket back up to his room and setting it down by his dresser. He’ll get to it later. For now he just faceplants on his bed, hugging his pillow.

He’s about to call out to him mom that he’s bored still and wants something to do when his phone rings. Keith’s contact flashes across the screen and not even two rings later Lance is accepting the FaceTime call.

Keith’s face fills the screen and he grins big at Lance before there’s a husky snout in his face and giving him kisses all over, his boyfriend squealing and trying to push Kosmo away. They’re both laughing as Kosmo finally stops, flopping on top of Keith’s chest.

They talk about how boring it’s been getting and how fucked their senior year is. Some states closed school for the rest of the year and they know it’s only inevitable that their high school’s going to close. Lance mentions how he’s ready to sneak out at this point and see him. Keith’s mom shuts down that idea fast with the threat of telling his mom.

Eventually they start catching up on shows together with Netflix Party and criticize every episode. Most moments are filled with silence, but he doesn’t mind. There’s not much to talk about since they’ve been calling each other every day, but just seeing Keith’s face is enough.

It’s a tough time, but they’re going to push through it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My Instagram: [@_magic_kiwi_](https://www.instagram.com/_magic_kiwi_/)  
> 


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